Apollo official meets CM Mamata, admits to some lapses

Kolkata: In the wake of the allegations of medical negligence and exorbitant billing related to the death of Sanjoy Roy, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals’ executive vice-chairperson Preetha Reddy on Monday met chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat Nabanna. She was accompanied by two senior officials of the hospital.

Speaking to reporters after the hour-long meeting, Dr Reddy admitted that there had been some lapses in healthcare delivery and claimed that they would be happy to rectify them.

“Apollo has treated nine million people from West Bengal and in the last one-and-a-half months, the level of care was not what it had been,” she said.

The committee, formed by the state health department to probe the death of Sanjoy, has found dereliction of duties of four doctors, two top-level administrative officials and two employees from the billing section of the hospital.

“We stand for quality and are committed to quality. But sometimes if the level of quality does not match the best standards, we have to correct it. We have a whole team that is ready to give the best services,” Dr Reddy said. She also spoke about the need to rationalise the tariffs of the hospital.

She added that Ms Banerjee has stressed on providing “affordable, accessible and best care” and a commitment has been made towards it. “We love the people of West Bengal. A good number of patients from this state visit our Chennai and Hyderabad units... We should do whatever we can to see highest quality of tertiary healthcare for the people of West Bengal,” she said, adding that the meeting was “good” and “a lot of ideas” were exchanged.

Dr Reddy welcomed Ms Banerjee’s initiative to set up the West Bengal Health Regulatory Commission and said that the hospital would work together with the commission. “The chief minister  was extremely gracious and pointed out certain matters which I think all hospitals have to adhere to. Patients have to be treated well and particularly those coming to the emergency ward have to be given immediate treatment,” she said.

Meanwhile, the newly-set up regulatory commission will hold its first meeting at Swasthya Bhavan on Wednesday and vice-chairman Anil Verma, who is the principal secretary of the consumer affairs department, is likely to head it in place of Calcutta high court Justice Asim Kumar Roy. The commission has been allotted office in Dalhousie.